THE Government has instructed surgeons across the UK to suspend the use of a heat-sealing tool used in tonsil surgery after the death of a patient.

THE Government has instructed surgeons across the UK to suspend the use of a heat-sealing tool used in tonsil surgery after the death of a patient.

In what it described as a move to protect patient safety, the Department of Health sent the urgent message to surgeons after a female patient died last week.

The woman, who has not been named, died after tonsil surgery in an unidentified English hospital.

An investigation into her death is continuing but a "causal factor" could have been the use of single-use diathermy forceps, which work by sealing wounds with heat, a health spokesman said.

He said, "The Department of Health today has instructed surgeons to suspend the use of all single-use electrosurgical diathermy forceps in tonsil and adenoid surgery with immediate effect."

Problems had been reported with the forceps with some surgeons using too much power and others failing to operate them properly, he said.

The instruments were introduced earlier this year to remove the risk of transmission of variant CJD through surgical instruments. Surgeons normally use stitches to seal off wounds rather than the forceps.